Go Tell It On The Mountain

The Blind Boys of Alabama

Released 10 April 2003

  1. Last Month Of The Year
  2. I Pray On Christmas
  3. Go Tell It On The Mountain
  4. Little Drummer Boy
  5. In The Bleak Midwinter
  6. Joy To The World
  7. Born In Bethlehem
  8. The Christmas Song
  9. Away In A Manger
  10. Oh Come All Ye Faithful
  11. White Christmas
  12. Silent Night

Liner notes

Go Tell It On The Mountain is the first holiday theme album in the group’s 60-year history, and their third release for Real World Records. This 12-song collection is a work of both comforting familiarity and startling innovation, with genre-crossing guest vocal appearances by Solomon Burke, George Clinton, Michael Franti, Chrissie Hynde, Shelby Lynne, Les McCann, Me’Shell NdegeOcello, Aaron Neville, Mavis Staples, and Tom Waits. There are special instrumental guest performances by Richard Thompson (electric guitar) and Robert Randolph (pedal steel guitar) in addition to a superb studio band, led by organist John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin & Wood fame) with jump-blues guitar ace Duke Robillard and the peerless rhythm section of Danny Thompson (double bass) and Michael Jerome (drums).

Go Tell It On The Mountain is produced by John Chelew, producer of the Blind Boys’ two previous Grammy Award-winning albums: Spirit of the Century (2001) and Higher Ground (2002).

Further Listening

  • Jubilation

    The Holmes Brothers

    Released 09 March 1992

    Sublime gospel meets juke-joint blues. The Holmes Brothers give us a soul-stirring re-invention of a timeless collection of songs from the American gospel canon in one memorable live performance captured at the Real World Recording Week in 1991.
  • Higher Ground

    The Blind Boys of Alabama

    Released 26 August 2002

    An album pulling together a rich assortment of classic and contemporary spiritual songs, many from the soul music tradition. Featuring compositions from Curtis Mayfield, Prince, Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Cliff, Ben Harper, Stevie Wonder, and, yes, even Funkadelic.

Further reading

Les Amazones d’Afrique assert women’s freedom of expression with new single ‘Kuma Fo’

The track features on their forthcoming Jacknife Lee-produced album Musow Danse.

Sheila Chandra companion listening release: Out in the Real World

Out in the Real World, is a digital-only collection of remixes, demo recordings and outlier tracks.

Africa comes to Real World: revisiting albums by six legendary artists

Jane Cornwell explores our new reissue series 'Africa Sessions at Real World'.

Track of the Day: ‘Chavale’ by Kerieva, from Dub No Frontiers

Today sees the release of Kerieva’s ‘Chavale’, the second track to be revealed from the forthc...